History + Highlights

Images, from left: The War Memorial Veterans Building shortly after the museum opened in 1935; The SFMOMA Botta building as seen from the corner of Mission and Third Streets; photo: Henrik Kam; The SFMOMA Botta and Snohetta building as seen from Yerba Buena Gardens in 2015; photo: Henrik Kam

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opened on January 18, 1935, under the direction of Grace L. McCann Morley, as the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. A full history and timeline can be found here.